TNB: The Most Popular Weekend Whippers of the Year

Love it or hate it, the Weekend Whipper has become as popular as presents on Christmas morning. So for your Holiday stoke,
here is a collection of the 13 most viewed Weekend Whippers of the year. Have a happy and SAFE Holiday!

13. Steep Falls Can Still Hurt

Dave Montgomery had been working on the first ascent of Tanuki, a steep 5.13a trad pitch, for about a month. On what he had hoped to be his send
burn, he placed the same .5 Camalot he had whipped on around five times. On this go, however, Montgomery stretched for a tenuous jam, lost his feet,
and fell … but this time the .5 popped, sending him for a LONG and painful ride down. “The 35-footer Doesn’t look terrible, but I ended up fracturing
my foot in three spots and had to have surgery,” says Montgomery. “Even steep clean falls can jack you up!”

12. Head-First Slab Slide

It doesn’t get much scarier than this Weekend Whipper, which takes place on the island of Malta, at a crag called Diamond Buttress. The climber is leading
Klean Kutter (5.10) and everything seems fine until he finds himself falling with his back against the wall!

11. HUGE 60-Footer!

Here is what happens when it all goes wrong! Brace yourselves for this Weekend Whipper and witness a genuine 60-foot slab fall!

10. Trad Fall at Smith Rock

This Weekend Whipper comes from Smith Rock, Oregon. The climber has gear just below his feet on the classic trad route New Testament (5.10a).
But just as he falls, the rope slithers in the wrong spot!

9. Massive Piece-Popping, Upside-Down, Yosemite Trad Fall

This Weekend Whipper is not for the faint of heart. Here, we see the scary result of running it out while laybacking a Yosemite granite crack. The
leader guns for the top while bypassing options for good pro. He pumps out, slips once, recovers and then … slips again. This time, however,
he’s going for a VERY dangerous ride.

8. Top-Rope Pendulum

Hikers to the rescue! In this Weekend Whipper, a climber becomes stranded when his top-rope gets wedged into a notch in the rock above him. The belayer
can’t lower, and the climber is swinging in space. Luckily, a few hikers (also filming) walk to the top of the cliff and lower a bight of rope
down with an ascender attached so the climber can hold onto it while they pull him up. But what happens when the climber reaches the wedged rope,
dislodges it, and then lets go without the slack taken in? Pendulum!

7. 30-Foot Free-Solo Fall

Jules Lines is perhaps the greatest free-soloist you’ve never heard of. Hailing from Scotland, his penchant for soloing hard rock-climbs is often discussed
in hushed tones among inner U.K. climbing circles. This summer, Lines added a direct finish to fellow Scotsman Dave Macleod’s Hold Fast,
a bold 5.13a trad route in Glen Nevis. Lines’ new finish bumped the grade to 5.13c, and as for the protection … Lines decided to eschew the ropes
all together and rely on his skills as a free soloist. On one attempt, however, Lines didn’t quite stick the sequence, but he did stick the landing!

6. Sucks to Be You

“You whimper and cry, and grovel on .9’s ’cause you’re such a fake, you always yell take, It Sucks to Be You.” Check out this hilarious video mash-up
of heinous whippers and climbing blunders set to the hilarious tune “It Sucks to Be You” written by Peter Darmi.

5. 40-Foot .10d Slab Fall

Will’s onsight attempt at leading Poker Face (5.10d) doesn’t quite pan out.

4. El Cap Aid Fall

High on El Cap, this climber decides to aid through a section of 5.7 terrain simply because he wanted to “practice” aid climbing. However, after placing
a suspect cam and a grapple hook, the climber weights a second talon hook and POP … IT’S WHIPPER TIME!

3. Buildering Gone Awry

Whenever it seems like a good idea to free solo a building in sneakers with nothing but a little concrete to break your fall, think about this Weekend
Whipper and remember three important words … DON’T DO IT! This is what happens when buildering goes terribly wrong.

2. Don’t Fall While Clipping the Chains

They don’t call Wadcutter (5.9+) at Torrent Falls in the Red River Gorge, the “Gumby Killer” for nothing! Here we have a climber nearing the
chains of this sandbagged Porter Jarrard classic, but just as he pulls up heaps of rope to clip the chains, he pumps out and sails for a 40-footer!

1. BASE Jumping Cliff Strike

Since the days of huge enchainments in the Alps first executed by paragliding, climbers have long embraced a fast means of decent. And BASE jumping
has now become the fastest. But moving fast through the air leaves little margin for error, and sometimes things go wrong … as you can see in
this amazing close call. According to the video’s poster on Vimeo, the jumper suffered a compression fracture of the T12 Vertebra, five stitches
to the eye, six stitches to the chin, and a severely sprained back, wrist and hand. Plus multiple bruised areas.